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ndonesia should build nuclear power plants to avoid a so-called “energy crisis”, as fossil fuels could run out in 15 to 20 years’ time, energy experts have warned.

Tri Murni Soedyartomo, a senior researcher at the National Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN), revealed that more than 30 percent of Indonesian citizens still did not have access to electricity. The current situation, she argued, could go from bad to worse in the future, with Indonesia’s demand for energy increasing as its population grows and its economic growth soars.

“It is forecasted that Indonesia’s population will reach 285 million in 2025 and 360 million by 2050. The challenge now is how do we supply energy to this amount of people?” Murni said.

Murni also went on to explain that considering the construction of nuclear power plants would be necessary given that Indonesia’s petroleum reserves would be used up by 2025 and that natural gas reserves would also be non-existent in 59 years, if the current situation remained unchanged.

Markus Wauran, a researcher from the Indonesia Nuclear Society (HIMNI), echoed Murni’s words, saying that Indonesia was prone to an energy crisis due to the country’s declining fossil fuel reserves.

“We should try to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels as it has been forecasted by many that our oil reserves will run out in about 20 years’ time,” Markus told The Jakarta Post.

“We should consider building power plants to utilize other energy sources. Unfortunately, alternatives [such as] geothermal energy and wind power still cannot produce electricity on a massive scale,” he added.

Markus also described nuclear power plants, with their massive energy supplies and relatively low operational costs, as the cheapest option available. Solar power plants, he argued, could prove to be costly as one megawatt of energy would require building one hectare of solar cells.

“If we want to produce large amounts of energy using solar power plants, say 1,000 megawatts, then we would need 1,000 hectares of unused field and solar cells,” Markus argued.

The plan to build nuclear power plants in Indonesia has not been without controversy. It has always been met with stern opposition, especially from environmentalists and civil society, which regard nuclear power plants as possessing lethal risks. Nuclear reactor failures that have claimed thousands lives, such as at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986 and recently this year in Fukushima, Japan, left many people predicting similar scenarios could occur in Indonesia, which is already a
disaster-prone country that has seen numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the past few years.

Critics also pointed to the fact that nuclear power plants had astronomical initial outlays compared to building other types of power plant. According to research published by Greenpeace Southeast Asia in 2011, entitled “Misleading thoughts and public lies of BATAN and nuclear proponents in Indonesia”, the United Arab Emirates reportedly allotted a massive US$20.4 billion to build four brand new nuclear power plants, with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts each. (sat)